I've Waited So Long, I Can't Think Of A Title

I bought my copy of Hellsing Volume 8 this Friday. I have been waiting eagerly for it to be released since I finished reading Volume 7, which was roughly Halloween . . . of 2005. Twenty-one months. That level of waiting is not good for the book, because the longer I have to wait, the more my expectations rise, because damnit, I am a fanboy, and if I have to wait damn near two years, I am entitled to have my eyes explode from the sheer kickassedness of your product when I get it. By that measuring stick, Hellsing Vol. 8 fails, as my eyes sit safely whole within their sockets, just as they did before I read it.

Which isn't to say it isn't good.

To be fair, Volume 8 was going to be hard-pressed to match up to Volume 7, which had Seras Victoria come into her own as a creature of the night, and ended with an army of Nazi vampires squaring off in London with an army of Catholic Knights, determined not only to eliminate these demons, but to then carry out an Inquisition on the surviving English. And that's the point when Alucard sailed up the river on the burned out hulk of an aircraft carrier. So yes, quite the spot to end a volume, and quite the place to leave me hanging, lo these many months.

Volume 8 does put on quite a show though. It's amusing to watch the two armies, previously so determined to kill each other, turn all their attention to this one vampire that leaps from the ship and lands amongst them. Of course, when he's a vampire with a pair of large handguns (including his 13mm Jackal) and the superhuman reflexes to use them, and he can call forth a loyal army consisting of every single person he's ever bitten (we're talking four digit number here people, including other creatures of the night), well, it's a bit more understandable. And when that army proceeds to impale most of both sides on large wooden pikes, well you can almost feel sorry for them. Almost (I mean, one side consists of Nazis, and the other side did plan on conducting an Inquisition, so compassion only stretches so far). What's impressive is Alucard unleashes this particular level of destruction because his Master, Integra Hellsing, gives him this highly descriptive order: 'Destroy them all. Do not allow them to go from this island alive. With your silver gun, dye the white-robed army vermilion. With your iron gun, dye the black-robed army scarlet. Dye every last one of our foes through with red. Kill all enemies! All that you see!!'

Suffice it to say, Integra Hellsing does not #$%^ around.

The most interesting parallel lies between Alucard, and the one he considers his rival, Father Anderson. Alucard seems to have been a man who became a monster out of some notion that killing lots of people would serve God, Anderson will become a monster to destroy one, in the service of that same God. Alucard's reactions to Anderson are what catch my attention throughout the volume, how impressed he is with the "paladin" (as Papafred dubbed him) making his way through the undead army, holding what's left of his left arm in his teeth, because it still holds a blade, and he intends to use it, and how sad Alucard is when Anderson chooses to become a monster. I think Alucard sees the man he was reflected in this man who is so dedicated to his cause that nothing else is of importance.

I'm not certain what else to say, other than I now await Volume 9, and Volume 10, whatever day in the future they may be released (I don't think they've been finished even in Japan, so their release here is still well off). The art is dark, and quite bloody, but still very expressive, and in general not horribly difficult to follow, though there are moments when I really wish this was on American comic-sized pages, because I think it would just look so much nicer with that extra space to use. The story still has a way to go, as the Catholics are bloodied but far from beaten, and the Nazi commander seems to have expected everything that's happened, and has likely several trump cards still to play.

Based on what I saw in this volume, I hope one of the things he's counting on isn't his aim with a firearm. He's just terrible. I'd give it a 4.0 out of 5, but Volume 7 would have netted a solid 5 out of 5, so keep that in mind for comparison's sake.